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Workers' Liberty'the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class'Workers' Liberty Australia |
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by Jeff Payne
Workers’ Liberty interviewed Meryan Tozer, a Brisbane S11 organiser who is currently the National Union of Students’ Environment Officer at The University of Queensland (speaking in a personal capacity)
Jeff: From your perspective was the S11 action a success?
Meryan: A mixed success I think but I’d definitely call it a success. I think people have to remember what actually happened on the day of S11. We did shut down the World Economic Forum, and we did convince people politically to attend the protest.
Jeff: And that was the main success, the drawing in of people?
Meryan: The drawing in of people and the inclusion of people who didn’t even attend the action but became politicised in the process. I'm a big believer in success coming in many different ways. It’s not just that we successfully shut down the Forum it was also how many people became politicised in the process. It’s also how many new people joined the movement and how many people became educated through the media, crap though the coverage of the action was. A lot of people supported this action that aren’t the usual type to come and protest like that.
Jeff: Did political debate take place on the pickets?
Meryan: On the blockade on Wednesday morning people delivered rounds of political speeches which were well received. Everyone seemed keen to listen and participate. We had a corporate quiz on another of the pickets but a lot of people just wanted to be entertained on the blockade. There was another stage when Liz and I tried to start a discussion but people at that stage just wanted to sing songs. That often dominated what political discussion was taking place with megaphones that were used to get the political points across.
Jeff: You’re the current NUS(Q) Environment Officer. How were people in the environmentalist fraction moved from seeing the use of resources as the problem- those some call ‘lifestylists’- to seeing capitalism as the primary cause of environmental degradation? Such discussions obviously helped make S11 a success.
Meryan: The process was through education and debate. I deal a lot with the UQ collective, as their office is right here on the University of Queensland campus. We had a really good debate at the beginning of semester about the real cause of environmental destruction. We had a few speakers and we vetoed any discussion about population being the cause of environmental destruction. Prior to there being any population issues there are the issues of who owns and controls the resources and who is alienated from the control of the resources. It was a really heated political debate that went on for about two hours and it was the first time I've seen the environment collective get so worked up about something. And most people believed capitalism was the main cause of environmental destruction. The debate came down to the question of whether you could believe in individual and collective action at the same time, or focus on only collective action.
Jeff: There was a lot of complaint generated about the activities of the Melbourne police at S11. What was your experience?
Meryan: I thought it was atrocious how the police behaved. Most of the things are well known already. I know of a friend who was detained and taken under the basement and assaulted until a superior officer stopped it. The superior officer stood and watched until he decided that was enough. I also saw them arrest those that did the nude marathon around the casino. They, of course, arrested the two women even though there were about five men as well. They had obviously waited until they were slow and could just pick them off. I asked them for their ID names and one of them replied "How does fuck off sound?" and then they pushed us. I said, "Don’t touch me" and he replied "I’ll touch wherever I want". Which was disgusting. Across the board a lot of people commented that they (the police) targeted women. They went for areas on women’s bodies that could really damage them such as their abdomens and their heads. It was cowardly.
Jeff: You said in the last interview for Workers’ Liberty that there was some organisational discussion masquerading as substantial political debate in the S11 Alliance meetings. Is that still the case after S11?
Meryan: Yes unfortunately. I think factions must have political discussions before the meetings because some of them want to keep the discussion just on financial or transport matters or just co-ordinating the protests. The closest we have come to political debate has been in deciding what were the demands to be put at S11 and those demands weren’t really used, unfortunately. A lot of people attending those meetings feel that it is not the right time to actually convince people that, for example, ethical consumerism isn’t the way to go. I think political discussion is lacking and definitely needed.
Jeff: Is the S11 alliance still united?
Meryan: At this moment yes, but we are having a meeting on Monday (25 September) to discuss its fate.
Jeff: Your hopes for the meeting are?
Meryan: I really hope it does stay together because we have brought a lot of new people into the movement and I wouldn’t want to see them just go away without any group to participate in. There are different student groups around, but that relies on those people facilitating those groups to be inspired by S11 to keep the momentum going. We do want to maintain a broad united front because that is how we are proving to be the strongest. There were a million and one different political differences down at S11 but we still managed to achieve something amazing despite that. We need to be as broad as the Right is broad and defeat it that way.
Jeff: Where do you see the S11 action in regards to the Left movement? Is it significant?
Meryan: I was reading something last night about the anti-corporatisation of education movement coming out of America. A lot of them are focusing on companies that run ‘sweat-shops’, which are investing in their school clothing. They said in the article that the only thing they can compare the movement to is something in the sixties. It is not just a once in a decade movement but something bigger. This is the first time in ages where I've seen people tie all the links together. In the eighties or early nineties there might have been a big environment or anti-homophobia movement, but these appealed mainly to the middle class. This appears to be much more of a working class movement than those.